hand ax
1
6.5
- noun
- /hænd æks/
- Specialized
:
hacha de mano
- Outside Africa, the earliest hand axes whose dating is uncontested are also Acheulean and are about 1.4 million years old.
- a stone hand axe
- flint hand axes
Nobody invented the Ashley and hand axe.
- Nobody invented the Ashley and hand axe.
Examples
-
The earliest hominid tools that appear to be part of a standardized tool-making tradition were discovered in the same region: hand axes related to the Acheulean culture.
Academic text (2003) -
In her workshop, she created a replica of a prehistoric hand ax to teach students about ancient tools.
-
He had a hand axe.
Fiction book (1994) -
One day, a team member discovered a classic Acheulean hand-ax, five inches long.
Academic text (2010) -
That's a 400,000-year-old stone hand axe carved by Homo Erectus.
-
Savanna life could even have delayed the process; many anthropologists have been struck by how slowly hominid-associated remains, such as the hand ax, changed after their first appearance in the Olduvai age.
Academic text (1991) -
PHOTO (COLOR): This quartz hand-ax, which was left on the island of Crete between 130,000 and 700,000 years ago, shows that pre-modern humans boated across open seas.
Academic text (2010) -
The archaeologist uncovered a polished hand ax that was used for chopping plants during the Stone Age.
-
He demonstrated how to use a hand ax to split firewood for the campsite.
Synonyms
129
1.0
A tool with a heavy blade on a handle for chopping wood
A tool with a long handle and a head with one sharp edge and one blunt side for chopping wood
How Powerful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from 'hand' (held in the hand) combined with 'ax' (a chopping tool); the compound denotes an axe designed to be held and used by hand. This noun–noun compounding pattern is productive and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Hand ax gets its name from a very simple idea: it is an ax you hold in your hand. Early people shaped a stone to make a sharp edge and used it 'to chop and cut', so today hand ax means a small stone tool for those jobs.